Finding the Inside Mirror

Beloved Osho, what is the best way to encourage people in meditation?

The first thing: for a patient to go to the doctor, you must make
him realize that he is sick; otherwise there is no need to go to the
doctor.
So the people you want to encourage into meditation: first you have
to make them aware that they are frustrated, perhaps for so long
that they have forgotten that they are sad. They cannot remember
when they laughed from their very hearts. They have become robots -
they do things because they have to be done but there is no joy in
doing them.
They are living an accidental life. Their birth is accidental, their
marriage is accidental, their children are accidental, their job is
accidental. Their life has no sense of intrinsic growth and
direction. That's why they cannot feel like rejoicing.
So first you have to make them aware where they are - and almost
everybody is in the same situation. Death is coming close - you
cannot even rely on your being here tomorrow. And your life is an
absolute desert - it has not found any oasis, it has not felt any
meaning, any significance - and death may destroy all possibilities
in the future.
So first you have to make them aware of their meaningless,
accidental, frustrated life. They know it, but they try to suppress
their knowing in many ways, because to know it continuously is a
torture. So they go to the movies to forget it. They go to parties,
they go to picnics, they drink alcoholic beverages; they do
everything - just to somehow not remember the reality of their
life, their hollowness, futility.
This is the most important part - to remind them. And once a person
remembers all this, then to lead him towards meditation is a very
simple thing, because meditation is the only answer to all the
questions of man. It may be frustration, it may be depression, it
may be sadness, it may be meaninglessness, it may be anguish: The
problems may be many but the answer is one.
Meditation is the answer.
And the simplest method of meditation is just a way of witnessing.
There are one hundred and twelve methods of meditation, but
witnessing is an essential part of all one hundred and twelve
methods. So as far as I am concerned, witnessing is the only method.
Those one hundred and twelve are different applications of
witnessing.
The essential core, the spirit of meditation is to learn how to
witness.
You are seeing a tree: You are there, the tree is there, but can't
you find one thing more? - that you are seeing the tree, that there
is a witness in you which is seeing you seeing the tree.
The world is not divided only into the object and the subject. There
is also something beyond both, and that beyond is meditation.
So in every act... and I don't want people to sit for one hour or
half an hour in the morning or in the evening. That kind of
meditation is not going to help, because if you meditate for one
hour, then for twenty-three hours you will be doing just the
opposite of it.
Meditation can be victorious: witnessing is such a method that it
can spread over twenty-four hours of your day.
Eating, don't get identified with the eater. The food is there, the
eater is there, and you are here, watching. Walking, let the body
walk but you simply watch. Slowly, the knack comes. It is a knack,
and once you can watch small things....
This crow, crowing... you are listening. These are two - object and
subject. But can't you see a witness who is seeing both? - The
crow, the listener, and still there is someone who is watching both.
It is such a simple phenomenon. Then you can move into deeper
layers: you can watch your thoughts; you can watch your emotions,
your moods.
There is no need to say, "I am sad." The fact is that you are a
witness that a cloud of sadness is passing over you. There is anger
- you can simply be a witness. There is no need to say, "I am
angry." You are never angry - there is no way for you to be angry
- you are always a witness. The anger comes and goes; you are just
a mirror. Things come, get reflected, move - and the mirror remains
empty and clean, unscratched by the reflections.
Witnessing is finding your inside mirror.
And once you have found it, miracles start happening. When you are
simply witnessing the thoughts, thoughts disappear. Then there is
suddenly a tremendous silence you have never known. When you are
watching the moods - anger, sadness, happiness - they suddenly
disappear and an even greater silence is experienced.
And when there is nothing to watch - then the revolution. Then the
witnessing energy turns upon itself because there is nothing to
prevent it; there is no object left. The word "object" is beautiful.
It simply means that which prevents you, objects you. When there is
no object to your witnessing, it simply comes around back to
yourself - to the source. And this is the point where one becomes
enlightened.
Meditation is only a path: the end is always buddhahood,
enlightenment. And to know this moment is to know all.
Then there is no misery, no frustration, no meaninglessness; then
life is no longer an accident. It becomes part of this cosmic whole
- an essential part. And a tremendous bliss arises that this whole
existence needs you.
Man's greatest need is to be needed. If somebody needs you, you feel
gratified. But if the whole existence needs you, then there is no
limit to your bliss. And this existence needs even a small blade of
grass as much as the biggest star.
There is no question of inequality. Nobody can substitute for you.
If you are not there, then existence will be something less and will
remain always something less - it will never be full. That feeling
- that this whole immense existence is in need of you - takes all
miseries away from you.
For the first time, you have come home.